Welcome to the Flaming Faggot

Callovia is called "the boundless empire" yet you have managed to find its northern border - a notorious roadhouse deep within the Madrasan Marches on the edge of the wilds of Llanvirnesse. The sign above the door reads "Flaming Faggot," which would suggest a cozy, homey inn with fresh biscuits served at teatime if not for the severed troll heads mounted on pikes at the gate.

As you cross the threshold the raucous din quiets momentarily as all eyes dart to the door and calloused hands drop instinctively to well-worn sword hilts. The threat, instantly assessed, is dismissed and roadhouse patrons go about their business hardly missing a beat.

Grim, hard-eyed men huddle around tables in close conversation thick with conspiracy; caravan guards gamble away their earnings; Caemric rangers sit close to the fireplace cooking the damp of the Black Annis from their clothes as they warm their innards with Red Dragon Ale; minstrels play and buxom wenches dance for the pleasure of men who pay them little attention - until they need a companion to warm their bed.

As you approach the bar, a huge, bald barman with a greatsword slung across his back slides a mug of freshly-pulled ale towards you, its frothy head dripping over the rim.

"Pull up a seat, lad," he says, "and let me tell you a tale of high adventure."

Monday, March 21, 2011

Dungeon!

I pretty much lost this past weekend to playing the old TSR boardgame, Dungeon! This is the first time I ever played and, I must say, I've really been missing out. This game is a gem.

Ever since my daughter was born, I've been hunting around for a fantasy board game for young children that was similar to Dungeon!, but no such thing seems to exist. I recently discovered that my wife had this game as a child and it was still at her parents' house. It was a little the worse for wear, and the rules were missing, but after a quick Google search I found a PDF download of the rules, so we were good to go.

All it took was one quick game to turn my five-year-old into an addict. She absolutely loves the game, and I'm not far behind her in enthusiasm. This is great because a steady diet of Snakes and Ladders, Candy Land, and other 'vanilla' preschooler games was wearing pretty thin.

Each player gets to select a character. Hero or Elf, and if you're playing the advanced game, Superhero, and Wizard as well. You wander around the dungeon fighting monsters and collecting treasure and the object of the game is to make it back to the entry chamber with the gold you need to win. Heroes and Elves need only 10,000 gold pieces, while Superheroes need 20,000 and Wizards need a whopping 30,000. There are six levels to the dungeon with corresponding monster and treasure cards that are progressively deadlier and more lucrative.

The game, designed by David Megarry, is an elegant distillation of Dungeons and Dragons that is quick, easy, and best of all, FUN! The artwork was produced by such notable TSR artists as Jim Holloway, Erol Otus, Harry Quin, Jim Roslof, and Stephen D. Sullivan.

I think that in many ways, Dungeon! was a game way ahead of its time. Although it was intended as a gateway into D&D for younger children, I'm not sure how successful this was. My wife, who spent countless hours playing this with her sisters when they were kids, had never even heard of D&D until she met me. I suspect the game would be a bigger hit today, now that so many of us who grew up playing D&D now have families of our own.

I think it probably works better as a gateway to D&D today. My daughter was wild with excitement when she defeated a dreaded Purple Worm, and she's learned all about the perils of Green Slime and Black Pudding, and she's become quite a dedicated little monster-hunter. In a couple more years it will take only a slight nudge to push her into D&D, and it will already be a familiar concept to her.

Given the popularity of Steve Jackson Games' Munchkin, which is really a very similar, but board-less version of Dungeon!, if WotC brought this game back into production, I think it would do very well. More's the pity since the only other way to get a copy, without pillaging your in-law's basement, is to turn to Ebay, where copies can sell for up to $100.

My mum bought me this boardgame back in the day. I have the entire thing but was also minus the rules. We played this game at recess in primary school. I can't wait to bust it out when my kids get a year or two older. I plan on using some of the wotc prepaints though, instead of the pawns.

Dungeon is a great game, I also like Death Maze, which is like dungeon but you build the board each time from little cardboard counters, representing rooms and passages. I played the heck out of Death Maze in middle school.